The Big Bang

Our Galaxy: The Milky Way

Other Galaxies

Our Solar System

Earth

Plate Tectonics

The 1st 4 Million Years

1859 Charles Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species.

Australopithecines & modern humans are hominids, & members of the primate family.

Australopithecus Africanus

The 1st 4 Million Years

3 distinguishing characteristics:

Bi-pedalism Very large brain Lower position of larynx

The 1st 4 Million Years

Homo Habilis: Evolved 2-3 million years ago

with brain 50% larger Seeds, grass, leaves, fruits,

berries, low protein Extinct by 1 million years

Homo Habilis

The 1st 4 Million Years

Homo Erectus: 1.8 million years ago Resembled modern man from the neck down

Brain 1/3 larger More protein - Social

Homo Erectus

The 1st 4 Million Years

Homo Sapiens: 400,000 to 100,000 years ago.

Brain size increased by another 1/3

Greater speech capacity, expanded diet

Migration out of Africa

The 1st 4 Million Years

Stone Age (2MM – 4K) Paleolithic (Old) to 10K Neolithic (New) to now

The 1st 4 Million Years

Paleolithic (Old Stone Age): Stone tools Scavenging/Foraging Much later hunting Fire - not used for food.

Example of Paleolithic Art

The 1st 4 Million Years

2 – parent family Women gathered, cooked,

reared the children while the men hunted. Lived in small groups migrating to “chase” their food.

The 1st 4 Million Years

3-5 hours daily for food, shelter and clothing. Time spent gathering, organizing, and passing on information, art, & religion.

Agricultural Revolution

Neolithic (New Stone Age) Caused by changes in climate 1st stage: semicultivation,

followed by cultivation. Transitions occurred

independently in various place of the world.

Catal Hüyük

Agricultural Revolution

Domestication of plants & animals occurred independently around the globe.

Exceptions were the Americas, Central Asia & Africa.

Agricultural Revolution

Global Warming in the Holocene period (beginning 9,000 B.C.E.) created environmental changes that reduced game & wild plant supplies.

Life in Neolithic Communities

Advantages of food production-stored extra, sustained health.

Society organized in kinship groups.

Cultural Expressions

Worshiped ancestral and nature spirits.

Used the megaliths Spread of language groups

Early Towns & Specialists

Geographically favored. Villages grew to towns &

centers of trade Metal works in the late

Neolithic era, gold & silver Support for non-farmers.